THE ARCHAEOLOGIST WHO STAYED BEHIND
Tanks rumbling down the streets
of Baghdad woke up Iraqi
archaeologist Donny George before dawn on
April 8. U.S. forces were entering the Iraqi capital,
and George and a small group of his colleagues
for weeks had been taking shifts sleeping in the
Iraq Museum to protect it
from looting. By late
morning pro-Saddam mili
tia were climbing over
the museum walls while
American helicopter
gunships hovered omi
nously above. His boss
decided it was time to
abandon the complex.
Because of fighting
and roadblocks, the
staff couldn't return
for three days, and
George heard about
Donny George stands
amid the devastation of
the trashing of the mu-
the Assyrian Gallery in
seum from BBC Radio.
Baghda's Iraq Museum.
"I couldn't sleep all night," he recalls. When he
did get back, he was greeted by ransacked
offices, an unknown number of artifacts
smashed or looted, and hordes of re
porters. Within days the researcher
emerged as a spokesperson for
the museum, thanks to his per
fect English, unflappable manner,
and obvious passion for the arti
facts. While many Iraqi archaeologists-and
most of his family-emigrated long ago, George
stayed behind during the grim decade of the
1990s. Now he faces the formidable task of find
ing the money, equipment, and training necessary
to get Iraqi archaeology back on its feet again.